Archaeologists digging in a 5,000-year-old site in southern Egypt have unearthed 200 rough ceramic beer and wine jars and a second mud-brick mortuary enclosure of King Hur-Aha the founder of the First Dynasty, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said Wednesday.

A joint American excavation mission from Yale University, Institute of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania University Museum and New York Universities found the treasure Wednesday at Shunet El-Zebib, north of Abydos in the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag.

A friend of mine has a theory about beer and wine being the true linchpins of civilization. He says that once humans learned how to ferment and drink alcoholic beverages, it influenced everything from agriculture, to law, to economics, to religion and morals.

If I can ever get him to deliver a concise, coherent version of this theory, I'll post it on a Booze ping...

A friend of mine has a theory about beer and wine being the true linchpins of civilization. He says that once humans learned how to ferment and drink alcoholic beverages, it influenced everything from agriculture, to law, to economics, to religion and morals.

Not to mention that it allowed ugly women to reproduce. We frequently see the results today.

Man was a hunter of meat and gatherer of seeds. One day he ate some seed that had gotten wet and had fermented. He caught a BUZZzzz and liked the way it felt. It took awhile for him to connect the dots in the wet grain/fermentation process to the buzzz... but he did. He said to himself, hummm, instead of chasing the crops, if I stay in ONE PLACE and plant this stuff I can have all the wet grain I need to get buzzzed on??? Simple... instant farmer / civilization.

[I finally got around to trying mead. ...All I can say is, WOW! That's GOOD! I can't wait to try it hot, with a spice packet steeped in it!]

Take this advice from a mead maker; the best tasting mead is made with additional ingredients, especially fruits and/or spices. If you can get a hold of a good grape, apple, or raspberry mead, or mead with cinnamon or ginger then you'll be in heaven.

Also, mead is reported to be an aphrodisiac and I believe from personal experience that theory has merit.

36
posted on 05/18/2005 8:41:55 PM PDT
by spinestein
(There is no beer in heaven. That is why we drink it here.)

Well, the mead that I've tried is from California, the brand is Chaucers. I found a liquor store here in KC that has 4 or 5 different brands. 2 brands are from Poland!

All I know is that it's really different. But then I like drinking "different" things. My favorite libation is Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter, and I like having good chocolate chip cookies, along with Young's Double Chocolate Stout!

But this mead is really something else!

Mark

40
posted on 05/18/2005 8:54:44 PM PDT
by MarkL
(I've got a fever, and the only prescription is MORE COWBELL!!!)

lizma wrote: drink alcoholic beverages, it influenced everything from agriculture, to law, to economics, to religion and morals. Hummm. The German's drank beer, the French drank red wine. Certainly explains the early outcome of WWII.

This guy may be on to something. Never underestimate the power of Pabst's, Stroh's and Rolling Rock. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Certainly explains how the war ended the way it did.

--> Actually, the Germans also had 'Speed' and other drugs they used while drinking LOL.

47
posted on 05/19/2005 12:58:12 AM PDT
by 1FASTGLOCK45
(FreeRepublic: More fun than watching Dem'Rats drown like Turkeys in the rain! ! !)

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